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Athletics
Athletics ' Athletics measures your general physical capability— except for raw power (which is 'Might) and stamina (which is Endurance). Athletics covers running, jumping, climbing, and other broadly physical activities you might find in a track and field event. Characters with high Athletics move further and faster than the rest of us, making it difficult to catch or hit them in a fight—think of athletes, soldiers, and outdoorsmen. Climbing Athletics is the skill used for climbing. The GM sets the difficulty for how hard it is to climb a given obstacle. At the GM’s option, you may use shifts to speed the process if you succeed. '' '' '' 'Dodging' '' You can use Athletics as a defensive skill to respond to physical attacks. This works very well in conjunction with taking a full defense action (yielding a +2 to the roll; see page 199). The one important thing to note is that taking a full defense action means that you can’t use Athletics for other things, like sprinting—though as with all skills, you can move one zone as a '''supplemental action' by taking –1 to the roll for your main action. '' '' '' ''Falling '' When you fall, you may roll Athletics to try to limit the severity of the result. The guidelines for the severity of falls is that the damage is equal to 5 stress for every 10 full feet a character falls, so a character falling from the top of the third floor (or around 30 feet) will face a 15-stress hit. '' '' '' 'Jumping' '' This is not the Olympics—jumping is something you do to leap obstacles or span bottomless chasms, and in those situations the GM sets a fixed difficulty for characters to meet or exceed. Generally, that difficulty is the bare minimum that clears the distance, so beating that by a few shifts is a good idea. Outside of that, jumping is often considered an extension of normal movement. '' '' '' 'Sprinting' '' You can use Athletics to move faster by taking a '''sprint '''action. Normally, you can only move one zone as a 'supplemental action' by taking –1 to the roll for your main action. If you spend your entire action moving, you are sprinting; rolling Athletics against a target difficulty of Mediocre, you can cross a number of zones and borders equal to or less than the total shifts of effect. If you get no shifts on your roll, you can still move one zone as long as there are no borders. '' '' '' 'Other Physical Actions' '' ''Athletics is often the “when in doubt” physical skill, and it can get a lot of use. Sometimes there’s confusion about when to use Athletics and when to use Might. As a rule of thumb, Athletics is used to move yourself, while Might is used to move other things and people. When an action calls for both, they might modify one another. If there is no clear indication which should be primary, default to Athletics as primary and Might as the modifying skill. '' '' ''